Today, lava spawns naturally in Minecraft in a whole bunch of places. The easiest location to find it is in the nether, where it forms vast seas below y-level 31. But it'll also spawn in the overworld, replacing air blocks in caves at the bottom of the world. Be very careful digging through rock below y-level 10 because it's very easy to find yourself face-to-face with a surprise lava pool that incinerates all the precious diamonds you just painstakingly collected. No point crying about it. The lava will just incinerate those tears too.

Lava replaces air blocks generated in caves and ravines between level 1 and 10. Level 1 to 10 is considered "Lava Level" because this is where a player should be careful while mining. If the player creates a customized world without any caves or ravines, lava will not appear, and if lava lakes, strongholds and villages are disabled, the only source is the Nether. Lava will not replace air blocks inside abandoned mineshafts, dungeons or strongholds between level 1 and 10.

Lava can also occur as lava rivers from a single spring block, pouring down walls into pools. The spring block can be on the side of a cave, ravine, mineshaft or a stone cliff above ground.

Lava also spawns as lakes, which can be found at any elevation within any biome. Lava generates in customized worlds with lava oceans set to yes.

Furthermore, 2 blocks of lava can also be found in villages in blacksmiths' houses.

15 blocks of lava can be found in the End portal room of a stronghold: 3 along the left wall, 3 along the right wall, and 9 below the portal frame.

In the Nether, lava is extremely common, appearing more frequently than water in the Overworld. Seas of lava occur, with sea level at level 31, about a quarter of the total height of the Nether (as 63 is about a quarter the height of the Overworld). They extend down to about level 22 at the most. Lava also appears in single blocks inside the netherrack. In Console Edition, lava is a renewable resource, due to the fact that the player can reset the nether in the world options.

Most entities will take 4 () damage every half-second from being in contact with lava, and will also be set on fire. When in contact with lava, 300 Fireticks will be added instantly to the Firetimer of the entity/player. For every further tick the player is in contact with lava, 2 Fireticks will be added to the Timer. For example: 10 seconds in lava will cause a total amount of 700 Fireticks (35 seconds) where the player burns (300 initially + 400 Fireticks for 200 ticks being in the lava) or rather 500 Fireticks (25 seconds) left to burn when they leave the lava source. If the victim touches water or rain falls on it, the fire will be extinguished, but the lava will continue to damage them directly.

The “embers” or “fireballs” which fly out of lava are purely decorative and do not cause fires or damage to entities. When it rains on lava, the rate at which the black "ember" particles appear increases dramatically.

A player in lava will last the following time, assuming the hunger bar is always full:

The orange area represents areaswhere air could catch flame if thegray and orange areas are not clearof flammable blocks. The woodis all at a safe distance.

Lava can cause fires by turning air blocks to fire blocks:

in a 3×3 area right above the lava, and

in a 5×5 area above that.

In order for air above lava to turn to fire, a block adjacent to the air has to be flammable, or one of the wood-constructed non-flammable blocks. Since catching fire depends on air blocks, even torches or lava itself can prevent a flammable block from catching fire. Additionally, not all flammable or wood-constructed blocks can be ignited by lava.

Lava of any depth can start fires this way, whether or not it appears to have a current, but it must have settled into a stable lava block. The flowing_lava block will not cause fires.

Lava flows from "source blocks". Most streams or "lava-falls" come from a single source block, but lava lakes (including the "flood lava" in the bottom 10 layers) are composed entirely of source blocks. Only a source block can be captured with a bucket. Lava flows far more slowly than water, and sometimes sourceless lava flows will linger for a short time. In the Overworld, lava travels 3 blocks in any direction from a source block. Lava travels faster and further in the Nether than in the Overworld .

Using a redstone wire, a one-block lava flow can be redirected by supplying power to the spring block, which will cause it to reset the flow towards the now-nearest terrain depression. This is further elaborated in this thread. It cannot, however, be reversed. This re-calculation is made because redstone wire when toggled changes the block from redstone(on), to redstone(off). Whenever a block updates on any side of lava, the lava re-calculates where to flow, but does not cut off its current direction of flow.

Lava above a nontransparent block (does not include stairs, fences, and slabs) produces dripping particles on the underside of that block. These droplets are purely aesthetic, functioning identically to their water counterparts, except water particles are slightly faster.

Lava can set off tripwires, because they break placed string. It will only trigger it once.

Arrows shot by the player will only catch fire if shot in flowing lava and not still lava.

Lava source blocks can be collected and replaced using a bucket, in much the same way as water can.

A lava bucket can be used as a very efficient fuel. It has the longest burning value of 1000 seconds, compared to 800 seconds for a coal block (a lava bucket smelts 100 items, and a coal block smelts 80). After smelting starts, the lava bucket turns into an empty bucket.

Lava spends most of its time as stationary, rather than 'flowing' – regardless of its level, or whether it contains a current downwards or to the side. When specifically triggered by a block update, lava will change to 'flowing', update its level, then change back to stationary. Lava springs are generated as flowing, and lava lakes are generated as stationary.

If bit 0x8 is set, this liquid is "falling" and only spreads downward. At this level, the lower bits are essentially ignored, since this block is then at its highest fluid level.

The lower three bits are the fluid block's level. 0x0 is the highest fluid level (not necessarily filling the block - this depends on the neighboring fluid blocks above each upper corner of the block). Data values increase as the fluid level of the block drops: 0x1 is next highest, 0x2 lower, on through 0x7, the lowest fluid level. Along a line on a flat plane, lava drops one level per meter in the nether and two everywhere else.

Height of the lava, with 1 being highest.Also represents the distance from a lava source or a falling lava.In the End and Overworld, only 2, 4 and 6 are used.

8–15

Falling lava.This level is equal to 8 plus the level of the non-falling lava above it.For instance a lava of level 2 will produce falling lava below it with level 10.The distinction makes no difference in behavior.

The original texture was replaced. The old texture can still be found in the terrain.png file in the minecraft.jar

In Classic, lava spreads by duplicating itself to open horizontal and downwards squares like water. Lava is slower, though, and can be easily outrun. A quick player can block the flow of lava by building a dam. However, if the lava wave is large, a player may not be able to build fast enough. Also like water, lava slows down the player moving through it but it does so to a greater extent, and swimming through it causes greater damage. Lava is also more opaque than water and is harder to see through while you are submerged; you cannot see through lava from outside it. At the bottom of the map, lava can be found directly above bedrock in a different form, as it will trap the player and prevent the player from leaving unless water is let in and collides with it or if the player places a sand or gravel block, letting it drop into the lava. If water is let into the area where the lava is, the lava will form stone, allowing the stone block to be removed to expose bedrock underneath.

Lava flows more realistically across surfaces but not as much as water does. Lava will flow for a total distance of 3 blocks "away" from the source block. Just like water, lava will flow in a single line towards the nearest terrain depression within four blocks. Items thrown into lava flows will disintegrate. All objects burn instantaneously when dropped into lava. Fired arrows will not disintegrate, but will appear to catch fire and can still be picked up. Magma is no longer present at the bottom of maps in this mode. Lava can melt ice and snow. Lava is luminous and a large lava flow is visible in the dark from quite a distance.

Dispensers were given the ability to shoot out the liquids inside lava buckets. They could also suck up the liquids if activated again, but did not fill up the buckets with the liquid dropped due to a bug.

The player can swim in lava, (If they are under the effects of a Fire Resistance Potion) although the swimming speed is noticeably slower. Additionally, flowing lava doesn't move players/mobs.

A water source block placed 1 block away upwards diagonally (but not through corners) from a lava block will first flow in the direction of the lava, then other directions facing away from the lava. This happens because water physics treat the place that lava occupies as empty, and try to flow to it. Once the water turns the lava into obsidian, the water physics update to flow in all directions. (The same thing happens with lava flowing over water.)

Although lava is a liquid, it is not possible to drown in lava. This applies to all mobs except squids. [Java and Legacy Console editions only]

When the player is in a bed, they cannot be damaged by lava.

In console versions, lava cannot be placed near the spawn point.

If lava is changed to be transparent via Resource pack, it will not be transparent.

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